2nd Annual Veterans Film Festival addresses issue of sexual assault in the U.S. military

Nov. 15, 2012

Written by

Ricky Kent

Contributing Writer

On Veterans Day, Florida State University held its 2nd annual Veteran Film Festival.

The film selected to be screened was Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War, a harrowing documentary about the epidemic that is sexually assault in the United States military.

Paul Cohen, executive director of the FSU Film School’s Torchlight Program, was instrumental in starting the dialogues that brought Kirby to our school.

“The concept of cinema as an art form that is sociologically and culturally important is no better way represented than today’s screening of The Invisible War,” Cohen said. “What will happen is that it will no longer be invisible.”

Kirby composed the film over a period of years, and with the help of the brave men and women who came forward to share their stories, and was successful in crafting an engaging piece that showed how this could happen, but also how terribly the victims of this horrible crime are treated when it does happen.

The movie makes a point to show that as much as the crime disturbs the victims, they feel an even deeper sense of regret and rage at how the U.S. military handles these cases when women are brave enough to come forward to explain what happened to them.

Dick wanted to show this film to a campus that would appreciate it for what it was, and not be afraid to entertain it on Veterans Day because of the sensitive subject matter.

Florida State has had a reputation for being one of, if not the, most veteran friendly campuses in the nation, so it wasn’t a hard decision.

“It’s been an eye opening experience for me,” said Dick. “I remember we were actually talking several months ago about what we should do with The Invisible War on Veterans Day and Paul [Cohen] called and FSU seemed like the perfect place to be screening this film. I also just want to say I’m so impressed with the way Florida State University is addressing issues surrounding veterans.”

And while the students who attended the event had an inkling of what they were getting into in terms of the film’s content, it’s a movie that is intended to make people uncomfortable in a way that causes them to realize the issues that affect veterans today. Dick and his team of filmmakers succeeded in that goal.

“I was expecting it to be emotional, but I was more anxious about being emotional about the actual stories of what happened, but the thing that gripped me the most was how it affected each person so much after it happened,” said FSU senior psychology major Katie Kliner.

Kliner wasn’t the only student shocked by the horrific psychological aftermath of the attacks on the veteran victims. Laura Hersch, an international affairs major and senior at FSU was also taken aback by the heartbreak that lasted with the victims for so long.“I did not expect so many of them to have suicide notes and PTSD,” Hersch said. “Just because when you think about PTSD you think of battle trauma and things like that, wounds that are physical in combat.”

The filmmakers of The Invisible War repeatedly emphasized it was not a film designed to tear down the military, but one designed to illuminate an issue to create awareness and change within the military.